To the editor:

It is unfortunate that the U.S. media is failing to divulge the details of President Bush’s Homeland Security Act, an act that seeks to gut citizen safeguards guaranteed in our Constitution.

Just last week, Bush’s Justice Department argued the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., that it could detain any U.S. citizen Bush designates as an “enemy combatant” without a court hearing and deny them access to legal advice indefinitely.

For many in the judicial profession, Bush’s arrogance borders on dictatorship. They argue that the Constitution guarantees U.S. citizens regardless of where they were arrested the right to private, unmonitored meetings with legal counsel, the right to face their accused, and the right to a trial.

In response to the Bush assertion, attorney Robert J. Wagner wrote, “The Executive Branch of the Government does not have the authority to detain an American citizen incommunicado and to unilaterally withdraw from the courts the power to inquire into the propriety of his detention.”

He also warned that if the court ruled for Bush, it “would eliminate any limitation upon [the government’s] power to indefinitely detain any American citizen, under a state of war or peace, as long as the military determines that the detainee is an enemy.”

Our Senators, Brownback and Roberts, and our Congressmen, Moore and Ryan should be urged to eliminate dictatorial provisions within the Bush legislation that would seek to eliminate our constitutional rights.

Donald Phipps,

Lawrence